VZCZCXRO8570
RR RUEHHM
DE RUEHHI #0037/01 0101008
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 101008Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6990
INFO RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 6135
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH 4144
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC//USDP/ISA/AP/ES//
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI//J00/J005/J006/J01LA/J06/J5//
RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 000037 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, EAP/EP, EAP/RSP, EAP/PD, OES/PCI 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR ANE, G/ENV 
STATE PASS TO EPA/OIA (DENNIS CUNNINGHAM AND MARK KASMAN) 
STATE PASS TO EPA/ORD (KEVIN TEICHMAN) 
HHS/OSSI/DSI PASS TO OGHA (WSTIEGER/MLVALDEZ/CHICKEY), NIH: FIC 
(RGLASS) AND NIEHS 
CDC FOR OGHA (SBLOUT/KMCCALL), NCEH (TSINKS), NIOSH (MHSWEENEY) 
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (TSHUBERT AND WVAN HOUTEN) 
BANGKOK PASS TO RDM/A (OCARDUNER AND JPASCH) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SENV TBIO KPAO VM
SUBJECT: FORD FOUNDATION GRANTEES HOST AGENT ORANGE DISABILITY FORUM 
 
 
Ref: A. 2007 Hanoi 2113 B. 2007 Hanoi 1862 
 
¶1. (U) Summary.  On December 18, the Ford Foundation funded a 
national disabilities workshop focusing on Agent Orange (AO) and its 
contaminant dioxin.  Various speakers highlighted the need for 
collective Government of Vietnam (GVN) and international support for 
the disabled suffering from war legacies, who the GVN claims are the 
most physically and mentally challenged among the disabled 
community.  The Ford Foundation sponsored U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue 
Group project and UNICEF are developing fund raising campaigns 
targeting Americans to support these efforts.  Ford Foundation 
efforts to mainstream disabled Vietnamese, provided regardless of 
the cause of those disabilities, supply needed care and services for 
the disabled community.  However, Vietnam requires greater public 
health and environmental health expertise to guide the limited 
resources currently mobilized to address this mainstreaming issue. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) On December 18, over 150 persons attended a "National 
Conference on Disability in Vietnam: An Agent Orange Perspective," 
funded by the Ford Foundation and organized by the Institute for 
Social Development Studies (ISDS), the Vietnam Union of Science and 
Technology Organizations (VUSTO) and the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group 
on Agent Orange/Dioxin (DG).  Presenters, all of whom received Ford 
Foundation funds over the past year, included VUSTO, ISDS, DG, Ford 
Foundation, Ministry of Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), 
UNICEF, Office 33, Vietnam Public Health Association (VPHA), VVAF, 
East Meets West, and provincial representatives of people living 
with disabilities in Dong Nai, Quang Nam, Danang and Thai Binh 
provinces. 
 
¶3. (U) The Ford Foundation and Aspen Institute's DG project supports 
ten prominent American and Vietnamese citizens committed to 
mobilizing (in both countries) public sentiment, political will and 
financial support for the AO/dioxin issue, the "last remaining war 
legacy."  The group, led by former National Assembly official Madam 
Ton Nu Thi Ninh and comprised of scientists, politicians, doctors 
and opinion-makers, has four proposed objectives for 2008-2009: 1) 
provide coordinated health, rehabilitation, education and vocational 
training to AO victims and their families; 2) enhance capacity of 
communities in response to the needs of AO victims and their 
families receiving these services; 3) strengthen the professional 
capacities of service providers; and 4) increase the national and 
international dialogue on policy development and activities to 
support AO victims and their families.  These efforts will start in 
Dong Nai/Ben Hoa in 2008 and later focus on Danang, Quang Nam, and 
Thai Binh Provinces. 
 
¶4. (U) In her opening remarks, Madame Ninh stated that U.S.-Vietnam 
relations will not be "normal" until the AO issue is "resolved," 
that AO victims cannot wait for scientific evidence and need 
immediate humanitarian support, and that environmental solutions to 
clean up the hotspots will be very costly and "too big for the two 
governments to solve alone."  In his remarks, Dr. Charles Bailey 
congratulated the GVN for recently signing the UN Convention on 
Disabilities.  He noted the association between AO/dioxin and 
certain disabilities and reported that the Ford Foundation has 
provided USD 4.2 million from 2002-2007 and would provide another 
USD 7.5 million during 2008-2009 to "alleviate the consequences of" 
AO.  He noted the "positive steps" taken by the USG and GVN on war 
legacies including the November 2006 Joint Statement by Presidents 
Bush and Triet, State Department and EPA provision of USD 400,000 
for technical assistance to support dioxin mitigation efforts in 
Danang, and the "unprecedented support" from the U.S. Congress of 
USD 3 million for dioxin-related environmental remediation and 
health activities in Vietnam.  However, Bailey said, "The Bush 
Administration needs to move more briskly.  This requires action. 
And it requires action now." 
 
¶5. (U) Director General Hoang of MOLISA noted that the United States 
sprayed 72 million liters of AO during the war and claimed that AO 
damages human health and causes genetic disorders and highlighted 
GVN efforts to address these health effects of AO.  Hoang stated 
that the GVN is drafting a Law on Disabilities, which will codify 
 
HANOI 00000037  002 OF 003 
 
 
the UN Convention on Disabilities into Vietnamese Law and provide a 
host of rights to Vietnamese disabled, including "Agent Orange 
victims."  The Law will be sent to the National Assembly in 2008. 
Vietnam now provides entitlements of approximately VND 140,000/month 
(less than USD 10/month) to those it identifies as AO victims, Hoang 
reported, though it lacks standard criteria identifying who should 
receive benefits. 
 
¶6. (U) Ms. Caroline den Hulk, Communications Director of UNICEF 
Vietnam, stated that 60 percent of "AO victims" are children.  In 
2007, the Ford Foundation provided USD 688,000 to the U.S. Fund for 
UNICEF to raise awareness and leverage additional resources for 
child disabilities in Vietnam.  UNICEF plans to take a more 
universal, rights-based approach to disabilities, instead of 
focusing on causation, and will build institutional capacity for 
social services at the national level as well as local levels, 
starting in Danang. 
 
¶7. (U) Dr. Le Ke Son, Director General of Office 33, which 
coordinates GVN AO policy, provided a somewhat more confrontational 
presentation than he normally gives to his U.S. Government 
interlocutors.  He referred to the U.S. defoliation campaign as "the 
longest chemical warfare in human history."  He presented a litany 
of data: 74 million liters of herbicide sprayed; 18 million liters 
removed during Pacer Ivy (NOTE: he did not explain that this was a 
repatriation operation, not a spraying operation); 3.1 million 
hectares of forest sprayed; 2.1 to 4.8 million people sprayed; and 
human blood samples in Danang containing 3-4 times the allowable 
limit for dioxin.  Son acknowledged various causes for disabilities, 
including physical, genetic and environmental causes (including 
pesticides), but noted that data indicate an increased level of 
disabilities for veterans in AO spray areas (26 percent) compared to 
those who did not serve in spray areas (16 percent), asserting that 
this is evidence that dioxin exposure led to these disabilities. 
Dr. Son highlighted four GVN objectives: continued study of genetic 
malformations; continued support for counseling people with high 
dioxin concentrations to not have babies; systematic 
characterization of the disabled; and mobilization of domestic and 
international financial resources to support GVN efforts.  He ended 
his presentation with a photo of malformed fetuses in jars, claiming 
that the deformities are the result of AO exposure. 
 
¶8. (U) Dr. Tuyet Hanh of VPHA/Hanoi School of Public Health stated 
that scientific data in the literature, combined with a knowledge, 
attitudes and practices (KAP) study of dioxin exposure through food 
in Bien Hoa and Dong Nai, show that most residents near the hotspots 
knew almost nothing about dioxin, possible exposure pathways, its 
possible impacts, and how to prevent human exposure.  This 
necessitates an intervention plan to raise awareness and reduce the 
risk of dioxin exposure through food.  Noting high percentages of 
villagers who routinely viewed television or listened to the radio, 
she suggested media campaigns to increase public awareness. 
 
¶9. (SBU) COMMENT:  The Ford Foundation's AO/Dioxin program has 
successfully mobilized field-based humanitarian assistance programs 
while encouraging other donors to ramp up disabilities rights-based 
programming at the provincial and national levels (ref A).  As this 
effort matures, there should be opportunities to coordinate with 
other groups and donors, including USAID implementing partners, 
interested in disabilities work, which were visibly absent from this 
so-called national conference.  At the same time, presentations at 
the seminar demonstrate that many persons involved in this issue do 
not hold views consistent with those of the U.S. Government and were 
unwilling or unable to focus on other sources of disabilities or 
means to limit exposure to dioxin.  We do not believe that providing 
a high-visibility forum for unchallenged and possibly unsupported 
assertions moves the issue forward, though it does accurately 
reflect the opinions of many of the advocacy groups that focus on 
Agent Orange/dioxin.  Additionally, presenters failed to call for 
the GVN to limit continued human exposure, including actions as 
basic as preventing consumption of animals caught at "hotspots." 
While we continue to make progress in normalizing this issue (Ref 
B), we still need to be vigilant of unsupported claims about 
AO/dioxin effects, while promoting cooperative efforts based on 
sound science. 
 
HANOI 00000037  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
MICHALAK